In the Media

Have you ever been convinced to do something by a friend or family member? Maybe it was buying a new car, starting a new exercise routine, or just trying a new dish at a restaurant.
Sometimes people need encouragement from a friend or family member to take action, especially when it comes to taking care of their health. A crowd-sourcing application from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) counts on the power of many to encourage people to have suspicious moles checked out for skin cancer.

When dealing with cancer treatments and side effects, exercising usually isn’t at the top of a patient’s to-do list. One program at HCI is helping patients understand the importance of physical fitness: Personal Optimism with Exercise Recovery (POWER). Studies show that exercising during and after treatment reduces recurrence rates and improves overall health and survival.
At HCI’s Wellness Center, cancer exercise specialists meet with patients to create exercise prescriptions. This consists of an initial visit to look at things like balance, flexibility, range of motion, and strength. Then the patient is walked through their exercise prescription, including what to do both at the Wellness Center and at home, and can participate in fitness classes based on their abilities. Doctors and exercise specialists at HCI hope to help patients not just get through cancer, but take control of their health for years to come.

TriCounty Health Department will host a community focus group where local residents are invited to discuss cancer health needs and concerns. Input will help to create education materials tailored to the community.

Have you ever felt like there is so much material on a subject that you can't understand it, let alone make decisions? There's a name for this feelinginformation overload.
People receiving a cancer diagnosis often experience information overload. Donna Branson, director of Patient and Public Education at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), explains, "If you Google the term breast cancer, you may get 44 million hits. It's confusing, and not all of the information out there is credible."

Emma Houston is the new director of diversity affairs for Salt Lake County.
A longtime community volunteer, Houston was been on the county's Council on Diversity Affairs since 2013. She is a former chairwoman of the Governor's Office of Ethnic Affairs along with serving on the boards of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation and the National Council on Aging.

Alison Elliot, a nurse, knows her health is important. So when her fiftieth birthday rolled around, she scheduled a mammogram. She was called back for a second appointment, where they performed a biopsy on her breast.

Elephants at their new Polk City home
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus' 11 remaining Asian elephants, after final May 1 performances in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and Providence, R.I., arrived last Thursday at Ringling's Center for Elephant Conservation in Polk City. The elephants joined Ringling's herd of 29 to live out their days.

Despite studies that claim people with cancer are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease--raising the possibility that what triggers cancer also prevents the neurodegenerative disorder--a new investigation finds a more somber explanation. Many cancer patients don't live long enough to get Alzheimer's. The research, led by investigators at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, was published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B.

When the Salt Lake Bees take the field on Saturday, May 7 they will be playing for the name on the front and the back of their jersey. The Bees teamed up with Huntsman Cancer Foundation (HCF) to allow donors to pick the names on the back of the on-field jerseys for the team's 10th annual "Pack the Park Pink Night" at Smith's Ballpark on Saturday, May 7.

Brainlab announced that it has enrolled 11 of the expected 30 hospitals and healthcare systems in the national Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) Patient Registry. Launched in partnership with The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the patient registry will gather important patient data, aiming to define national patterns of care in radiosurgery. The registry will have an eye to improving healthcare outcomes, supporting informed decision-making and potentially lowering the cost of care for patients.

Mindfulness is a way to learn stress reduction and relaxation techniques, restore peace and well-being. For patients at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), a weekly mindfulness group has helped reduce pain and other symptoms at a.
The group started as a way to help people learn tools for reducing stress and cope with pain associated with cancer. Dr. Paul Thielking, a psychiatrist at HCI who leads the group, says meditation-based practices have a long history and are becoming a more prevalent form of chronic pain management in treatment centers across the country.

Chemotherapy, radiation, and medication are what many patients expect as normal parts of their cancer treatment plan. In addition to these conventional therapies, patients at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) are feeling the benefits of music therapy and other mind-body practices as a way to relax, manage cancer-related stress and pain, and connect with emotions.
Just as cancer treatment plans are unique to each patient, so is music therapy. Beth Hardy, HCI’s music therapist, says a session can include playing live music, writing songs with patients, and using music as a relaxation tool. Music therapy can also help family members of cancer patients deal with stress. Beth says having music in the room can help families process the emotions they’re going through.

A Utah research company has teamed up with the Huntsman Cancer Foundation in an effort to raise funds and awareness for cancer research.
Today, Provo-based Qualtrics announced a new campaign, Five for the Fight, which invites everyone around the globe to give $5 to the fight against cancer and to challenge five others to do the same.

February 4 might not mean much to you right now, but this date affects everyone at some point. Maybe it will be because of your mother, your cousin, or your child. Maybe it will be because of you. February 4 is World Cancer Day, a chance for all to take a closer look at their health and take steps to help reduce their risk of cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. In fact, 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetimes. Many patients receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer and immediately begin to imagine difficult and time-consuming radiation treatments, but Huntsman Cancer Institute is pioneering new technology to help these patients and offering them renewed hope for the future.

Art can be a powerful expression of pain and torment, as well as joy and overcoming. Perhaps it's fitting, then, to take a disease that can often combine all of those emotions — cancer — and make it the basis for a patient's creative endeavors.